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Systematics and Taxonomy (S&TC Reports)

I join the noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, in thanking our clerks and our special adviser for all their hard work. The noble Lord reminded us that your Lordships’ committee has been concerned about the state of systematics and taxonomy since 1992. Since then we have been bringing this concern to the attention of the Government by reports, follow-up reports, correspondence and debate. Frankly, we are not sure if the decline has been halted or reversed. Have committee members been banging their heads up against a brick wall, or are we getting somewhere by wearing away the stone with a constant drip, drip, drip? I apologise to my academic colleagues, who are probably giving me nought out of 10 on my report card for mixing my metaphors. I agree with the noble Lord that we are getting somewhere—but my metaphors are mixed because the messages are mixed, as are the messages from the Government. The greatest mixed message of all is the assurance that Defra will monitor the ecosystem. That requires the expertise of taxonomists, but nobody is sure if there are going to be a sufficient number to carry out the work. We are told that the NERC will commission a study this year to find out the number and trends. Hopefully, we will then know. We are all agreed that web-based taxonomy is having, and will have, an enormous impact on taxonomy services and knowledge. We believe that a road map for delivering internet-based taxonomy should be developed. But the Government are referring to biodiversity data, whereas the committee wants to use the internet as a means of identification. Is that a mixed message or just confusion? During our debate with the Government there has been an exchange of views about the management and culture of science within the Government. The noble Lord, Lord Sutherland, explained the importance of understanding environmental sustainability. This is why taxonomy and systematics should be firmly in a powerful lead government department, such as DIUS—a department strong enough to halt its decline. At present, though, the responsibility for systematics and taxonomy is spread over many departments. Again, the response we get is mixed. We are told that the Government’s role in science is to set the overarching strategy, and it is left to the research councils and others to decide how research money is spent, yet we are told that occasionally cases arise where Ministers rightly provide strategic direction. Is that a message to try harder to persuade the Government that systematics and taxonomy are of sufficient importance for Ministers to give strategic direction? Or is it a message saying, "Don’t talk to us, talk to the research councils and others"? I come back to my original question: are our concerns being acknowledged and acted upon or are they being ignored? Our concerns are clear—recruitment, funding, governance, availability and distribution of knowledge—but the response is mixed. Yes, there will be a study of numbers and trends; yes, there will be dialogue on priorities and some work on distribution. Very good, but is it enough? I am a lay member of this committee. I do not have any special scientific knowledge. But our report reflects the thoughts of many well informed people who are concerned that if we do not boost the taxonomic community, both professional and voluntary, then we will miss out on some important aspects of environmental sustainability through ignorance or neglect. I am an unashamed supporter of this Government. I know that the economic crisis dominates government thinking at the moment, as it should. But fairly soon politics will be moving into election mode, a time when many issues are raised and when perhaps climate change will again come to the top of the agenda. During that debate, it would be nice for the Government to be able to say yes, we listened to your concerns about ecosystem services and have done something about it. There is nothing mixed about that message.